Passions Flare Over Texas Proposed Rule That Would Require Cremation, Burial Of Aborted, Miscarried Fetuses

AUSTIN, TX -- Passions flared Thursday during a packed hearing on a proposed law that would require women in Texas to bury or cremate aborted fetuses or stillborn babies.

Gov. Greg Abbott is proposing a new law he frames as protecting the "sanctity of life" that would ban disposal of fetuses resulting from abortions or miscarriages. The proposal is part of the governor’s broader “Life initiative,” designed to “protect the unborn and prevent the sale of baby body parts,” according to his official website.

The Texas Department of State Health Services received Abbott's proposed rules on July 1.

Current rules allow fetal remains to be ground up and discharged into a sewer system, incinerated, disinfected or disposed of in landfills after processing, the Austin American-Statesman noted.

Close to 100 people lined up to speak at Thursday's hearing on the proposed measure, some supporting the new law while others decried it. All told, the agency has received about 12,000 comments from the public in response to the new proposal.

“For far too long, Texas has allowed the most innocent among us to be thrown out with the daily waste,” said state Sen. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, said at the hearing in downtown Austin, as reported by the Statesman. “Life begins at conception.”

Others took a dissenting view. In a previous joint letter from the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Hospital Association, medical professionals questioned the proposed rules' feasibility -- particularly as it relates to miscarriages occurring outside a medical setting, as reported by the Texas Tribune.

The letter by the trade associations raises numerous questions related to the practicality of Abbott's proposed measure.

“Would the rules, if adopted as proposed, require a woman who experiences a spontaneous miscarriage to carry the fetal tissue to a physician’s office or other health care setting for assessment?” the letter partially reads. "If a death certificate is required to be issued, under which circumstances will the report be publicly available? Who would be responsible for paying for the costs of cremation and/or interment of fetal tissue?"

TMA and THA officials note the costs associated with cremation run from $1,500 to $4,000 while burial costs range from $7,000 to $10,000.

In other written comments, the Texas Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Texas district of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said Abbott's proposed rule yields no public health benefit.

“Mandating that fetal tissue at any point in gestation be collected for cremation or interment could become a cruel mandate on a woman who is experiencing the grief and trauma of losing a very wanted pregnancy,” the groups' members wrote in particular of women experiencing miscarriages, as the Statesman reported.

Jim Bates, director of the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Texas, wonders the impact to county coffers if a woman is unable or unwilling to pay for cremation and burial, as the Texas Tribune reported.

“This rule change looks like it will force women into a narrower set of emotional and financial choices, with no added benefit to the woman,” Bates wrote to health officials as part of a public comments in advance of the hearing. “It is anticipated that social, psychological, financial and pastoral services will be immediately affected by the new rule; with little or no experience in how to support the woman during this newly regulated life event.”

Others question the seemingly rushed process of introducing the new measure. Some have complained the proposal came with scant notice and no prior announcement before being published in the Texas Register on July 1, which sparked a state-required, 30-day public comment period.

Still others question the motivation for the new rule given its prism of political ideology. Abbott wrote in a fundraising email to supporters last month that he objects to having fetal remains "treated like medical waste and disposed of in landfills."

Others question the timing of Abbott's proposal, coming on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down a series of rigid requirements with which women's health clinics were forced to comply. In late June, the Supreme Court ended those requirements -- which included requiring clinic doctors to have hospital admitting privileges at nearby hospitals -- which resulted in the closing of some abortion clinics and threatened to close roughly 75 percent of the remaining ones still in operation.

The requisite public comments portion of the hearing will continue, with final rules expected to take effect in September.

>>> Pictured: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott